Google Fiber's quick access to utility poles threatened by lawsuit.

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AT&T has sued Nashville to stop a new ordinance designed to accelerate the deployment of Google Fiber.

The lawsuit (PDF) was filed in US District Court in Nashville yesterday, only two days after the Nashville Metro Council passed a “One Touch Make Ready” rule that gives new ISPs faster access to utility poles. The ordinance lets a single company make all of the necessary wire adjustments on utility poles itself, instead of having to wait for incumbent providers like AT&T and Comcast to send work crews to move their own wires. Google Fiber says it is waiting on AT&T and Comcast to move wires on nearly 8,000 poles.

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AT&T’s lawsuit claims that the ordinance is preempted by Federal Communications Commission pole attachment regulations and violates AT&T’s 58-year-old pole attachment contract with Nashville. The company seeks a declaration that the ordinance is unlawful and a permanent injunction preventing the local government from enforcing it.

The Nashville ordinance lets companies “temporarily seize AT&T’s property, and... alter or relocate AT&T’s property, without AT&T’s consent and with little notice,” AT&T argued. “AT&T would be deprived of an adequate opportunity to assess the potential for network disruption caused by the alteration or relocation, and to specify and oversee the work on AT&T’s own facilities to ensure any potential for harm to its network, including harm to the continuity and quality of service to its customers, is minimized.”

Google Fiber or other ISPs would have to provide only 15 days' notice before moving wires, or 30 days if the work would “reasonably be expected to cause a customer outage,” AT&T said. But that conflicts with FCC regulations, which gives companies like AT&T 60 days to modify wires to accommodate a new ISP, AT&T argues.

AT&T’s wires are installed in public rights-of-way and on government-owned utility poles. The company has lines on 104,000 utility poles in Metro Nashville, of which 80 percent are owned by the municipal Nashville Electric Service. Most of the remaining 20 percent are owned by AT&T.

“If a copper feeder cable were damaged, 1,000 or more residential customers could lose service, and business customers without redundant service would also lose service,” AT&T wrote in its court complaint. “Some of AT&T’s aerial fiber facilities are used to provide high-capacity switched Ethernet services to various customers including police and fire stations, and to wireless carriers that use the fiber to carry wireless traffic to and from their cell towers. Damage to these facilities could knock out service to emergency responders, and take a cell tower out of service.”

AT&T said its contract with the Nashville Electric Service gives AT&T the right to “place, maintain, rearrange, transfer and remove its own attachments.”

“Nothing in this contract permits Metro Nashville to rearrange or transfer AT&T’s facilities (except in the event of an emergency) or to grant third parties such rights,” AT&T wrote.

Nashville prepares for court battle

While both AT&T and Comcast opposed the One Touch Make Ready ordinance, city officials argued that it was necessary to give customers more broadband choices.

Nashville Mayor Megan Barry encouraged the ISPs to find a compromise that would make an ordinance and litigation unnecessary but ultimately supported the Metro Council’s ruling. “My hope now is that any potential legal disputes over this new law can be resolved quickly, and we can move forward with expanding fiber access throughout the city,” Barry said after the council vote, according toThe Tennessean.

Google Fiber owner Alphabet offered to share the company's attorneys with Nashville to fight the lawsuit. Google Fiber is already going through a similar process in Louisville, Kentucky, which also passed a One Touch Make Ready ordinance and was sued by AT&T.